EFPIA fights back at counterfeit drugs

Matthew Buttell

With counterfeit drugs becoming a very real problem for the pharmaceutical industry, EFPIA has announced Swedish trials of a new system aimed at combating the growth of this increasingly significant threat.

Counterfeiting is a problem that permeates across many industries. As business sectors continue to fight the war against those who illegally copy, share and sell their products - from DVD rips to pirated software - the issue is a damaging and potentially crippling problem.

For the pharmaceutical industry, however, counterfeiting presents a wholly different problem: in short, a matter of life and death.

Now the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) is looking into implement a new system that will tackle the problem.

According to reports, this system - known as the pilot project of medicines verification - is now being trialled by EFPIA in Sweden. The process is being carried out in conjunction with both Swedish pharmaceutical retailers and wholesalers in 25 retail pharmacies in and around the Stockholm area.

The trial process will see more than 100,000 products being verified via a small data matrix, defined as being similar how a bar-code works. Through the matrix system, numbers will be individually assigned to each pack of medicine that will then supply the necessary information to the pharmacists - almost instantaneously - as to whether that pack of medicine has been previously been dispensed.

Coding

It is hoped that the data matrix, which allows every pack of medicine to be individually coded, will provided unique information to the pharmacists - including product code, batch number, expiry date and a randomised serial number which identifies each pack on an individual basis.

The trial, which most notably includes the involvement of leading Swedish pharmaceutical retailer Apoteket AB is expected to run until late November. The coding and identification system was agreed between the EFPIA, Apoteket AB and wholesaler firms Tamro and Oriola KD back in May and will be financed entirely by the pharmaceutical industry.

The call for action is part of EFPIA's response to the European Commission's proposal, put forward in its draft directive published last December, for a mass serialisation of medicines as part of measures to better protect European Union (EU) citizens from the serious threats posed by counterfeit drugs.

The move is really just the first step, however, and EFPIA director general Brian Ager explains that while "individual product verification will not provide a complete solution to the challenge of counterfeit medicines. Nevertheless, as part of a package of measures, this type of end-to-end verification system will make a significant contribution."